Rocky Rodent (published by Irem) is on the SNES was yet another platformer trying to compete with the likes of Sonic and Mario. One of the gimmicks was powerups came in the form of various hairstyles, such as a mohawk that can be thrown like a boomerang.

Never heard of them, and yet I played Knights & Merchants & Vangers back in the day.

Apologies for the derail but was Knights and Merchants really such a niche title over there? I remember it generating quite the buzz in the local magazines of the era.

Fond memories of that one. Still have my big box copy from 1998.

EDIT: Would Titus the fox qualify as a failed mascot? As he was supposed to represent Titus France. Only had that one game to my knowledge.

I wonder if Da Boys from Town & Country Surf Designs for the NES would qualify here.

Titus became known as the logo that garnered a "Oh no..." type reaction, similar to seeing an LJN logo.

As for the matter of the minor sidetrack, I can't exactly recall much of a buzz around much of PC gaming during that time, because this small indie game was hogging the spotlight. Had a guy with a crowbar?
I would suggest they do; I didn't even realize they were associated with a surf shop until a gaming curator mentioned it offhand.
It wasn't even an original concept by the time it happened, as Kabuki Quantum Fighter already had the hair thing down pat. On the NES.

That's funny. I listen to the Retronauts podcast quite a bit but hadn't checked his YouTube in a while. I just remember the wildness of that game and those characters from playing it with my brother.

His Video Works series is much worth the time. He even covered the whole of Virtual Boy somewhat recently.

What ever happened to GOG's mascot?

there was a mascot?

GOG Bear, GOG-Chan, those are the two main ones.

If anthropomorphic allowed, I vote Sackboy.
Haven't played any of those vgames (wow, just found out its part of a series)
If someone vouches them as fun/entertaining, I'd revert my vote; But not consider to play them: The voodoo doll aspect is a No to me

Those Tak games that were heavily promoted on Nickelodeon and eventually got a show... wow, 4 years later? The commercials were always on when I watched the channel as a kid, but they never appealed to me, because I liked my grown-up games, like Tony Hawk and James Bond.

Yeah, being a GameCube kid didn't get me too many games.

I had a stack of these games back in the 90s, when everyone was trying to be the next Sonic. Worst of them that I had was James Pond, EA's fish... spy... thing... ugh, it was pretty frustrating. He got a sequel, where he turned in to a robot ("Robocod") but I never played it. One was more than enough.